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Phish: Farmhouse

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Elektra Entertainment
Released: 2000.05.16
Time:
 49:31
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Bryce Goggin, Trey Anastasio
Rating: *********. (9/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.phish.com
Appears with: Trey Anastasio
Purchase date: 2001.12.06
Price in €: 18,99





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Farmhouse (T.Marshall/T.Anastasio) - 4:02
[2] Twist (T.Marshall/T.Anastasio) - 3:24
[3] Bug (T.Marshall/T.Anastasio) - 5:07
[4] Back on the Train (T.Marshall/T.Anastasio) - 3:02
[5] Heavy Things (T.Marshall/T.Anastasio) - 4:15
[6] Gotta Jibboo (T.Anastasio) - 5:31
[7] Dirt (T.Marshall/T.Anastasio) - 4:32
[8] Piper (T.Marshall/T.Anastasio) - 4:27
[9] Sleep (T.Marshall/T.Anastasio) - 2:09
[10] The Inlaw Josie Wales (T.Marshall/T.Anastasio) - 2:56 *
[11] Sand (T.Marshall/T.Anastasio) - 3:24
[12] First Tube (T.Marshall/T.Anastasio) - 6:45

* - Trey accoustic song originally named: "Minnestrone"

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


TREY ANASTASIO - Guitar, Vocals
JONATHAN FISHMAN - Drums, Vocals
PAGE MCCONNELL - Organ, Piano, Vocals
MICHAEL GORDON - Bass Guitar, Vocals

PAGE MCCONNELL - Piano
JAMES HARVEY - Trombone on [6]
JENNIFER HARTSWICK - Trumpet on [6]
ANDY MOROZ - Trombone on [6]
DAVE "The Truth" GRIPPO - Saxophone on [6]
JOHN DUNLOP - Cello on [7]
ROY FELDMAN - Viola on [7]
DAVID GUSAKOV - Violin on [7]
LAURA MAROKITZ - Violin on [7]
BÉLA FLECK - Banjo on [10]
JERRY DOUGLAS - Dobro on [10]

JOHN SIKET - Recording Engineer, Mixing
PETE CARINI - Assistant engineeer
BOB LUDWIG - Mastering
DANNY CLINCH - Booklet
JASON COLTON - Design

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2000 CD Elektra 62521
2000 LP Elektra 62521
2000 CS Elektra 62521

It was recorded in Trey's Farm house, it was a 150-year-old barn outside of Burlington, VT. It's not the same farm house where "Farmhouse" was originally 'written' with Tom Marshall in '98 at A rented farm house in Stowe.



The party line on Phish is that the band's live shows are so extraordinary, their studio records are almost superfluous by comparison; frankly, it's a ridiculous contention — apples and oranges, really — and moreover, each successive Phish album reveals new layers of intricacy and melodic invention otherwise lost in the epic explosiveness of their concert sets. Their rootsiest and most organic effort to date, Farmhouse is also their most fully developed — these are complete, concise songs and not simply outlines for extended jams, boasting a beauty and intimacy which expands the group's scope even as it serves notice of a newfound pop accessibility. It's a brave record, much less an exhibition of the band's vaunted instrumental prowess than it is a showcase for Trey Anastasio's increasingly skilled and far-reaching songwriting. The opening title cut, a gorgeously rustic country-pop ballad, immediately establishes Farmhouse's muted, relaxed tone, and despite the occasional detour like the sunny funk workout "Gotta Jibboo" or the closing instrumental jam "First Tube," by and large the set opts against kitchen-sink eclecticism in favor of an evocatively pastoral uniformity. In short, Farmhouse is everything Phish's die-hard legions no doubt hoped it wouldn't be, but as a radical reassessment of their music's purpose and approach, in many ways it's closer to the band's true spirit of innovation than any record they've made.

Jason Ankeny - All Music Guide
© 1992 - 2001 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



Filled with pretty melodies, delicate strumming, and concise, focused, melodic tunes, Phish's eighth studio record marks a bit of a departure from the norm, but not as much of a departure as many might think. For one thing, 1996's Billy Breathes moved in a similar direction--to the delight of casual fans and the dismay of many Phish fanatics. For another, even at their most frenetic and far-reaching, the band has always shown a keen pop sensibility, even if it was merely a chance to catch their breath. Make no mistake: most of the songs on Farmhouse are wonderfully, irresistibly catchy, and often quite lovely. This was clearly singer and guitarist Trey Anastasio's baby from the get-go, and he fills the album with some of his most appealing compositions. And as usual, there's a diverse range of styles, from straight pop to country soul to easy funk to gentle balladry. That said, fans used to hearing these songs live will most likely be disappointed by Farmhouse. Too often, you find yourself waiting for the explosive jam that never happens, and when it does, as on "Piper," it seems oddly out of place. Ironically, the final song, the cunning instrumental "First Tube," reminds you what you've been missing all along--bite. In the long run, this is not the album that Phish will be remembered for, playing away from what makes them unique, but as you find your toes tapping and your mouth humming along, you realize that it's certainly an enjoyable listen and satisfying in its own way.

Marc Greilsamer - Amazon.com



Phishs achte Studioaufnahme ist voll von schönen Melodien, von grazilem Instrumentalspiel und prägnanten, konzentrierten Wohlklängen. Sie markiert auf diese Weise ein wenig die Abkehr von der bisherigen Norm, aber nicht ganz so stark wie viele vielleicht denken mögen. Erstens bewegte sich auch schon Billy Breathes (1996) in eine ähnliche Richtung – sehr zur Freude seiner Gelegenheitsfans und zum Entsetzen von vielen echten Phish-Fanatikern. Zweitens, selbst zu ihrer frenetischsten und exzentrischsten Zeit hat die Band immer einen ausgeprägten Sinn für Popmusik behalten, selbst wenn dies nur ab und zu als Atempause gedacht war. Lassen Sie sich nicht täuschen: Die meisten Songs auf Farmhouse sind wunderbar, unwiderstehlich, eingängig und oft ganz einfach schön. Dies war ganz sicher von Anfang an das Lieblingskind des Gitarristen und Sängers Trey Anastasio, und er bereichert das Album mit einigen seiner reizvollsten Kompositionen. Und wie gewohnt ist da eine vielfältige Palette von Stilen: von echter Popmusik über Country Soul und Easy Funk bis hin zu sanften Balladen. Fans, die gewohnt sind, diese Songs live zu hören, werden höchstwahrscheinlich von Farmhouse enttäuscht sein. Allzu oft erwartet man den befreienden Jam, der dann aber nicht eintrifft; - und wenn er dann endlich kommt, wie bei "Piper", dann erscheint er so seltsam deplatziert. Ironischerweise erinnert der letzte Song, das raffinierte Instrumental "First Tube", einen daran, was man die ganze Zeit vermisste - Biss. Langfristig wird man sich nicht wegen dieses Albums an Phish erinnern, da sie sich zu sehr von dem entfernen, was sie einzigartig macht. Aber wenn Du Dich selbst dabei ertappst, wie die Füße anfangen zu tappen und du anfängst mitzusummen, dann wird spätestens klar, dass es sich unbestritten um einen erfreulichen Hörgenuss handelt, der einen auf seine Weise rundum zufrieden stellt.

Marc Greilsamer - Amazon.de



In den Staaten sind Phish die absolute Kultband. Vieles erinnert an die legendären Grateful Dead. Top-Instrumentalisten, die live gerne (und lang) improvisieren, Fans, die ihnen bis nach Europa hinterher reisen, mit vielen Aktionen (vor allem auch im Internet unter www.phish.com und mit eigener kleine Zeitung) an sich binden und ihnen auch erlauben, die Konzerte mitzuschneiden. Auf CD gelingt es dem Quartett immer besser, echte Songwriter-Qualitäten zu entwickeln. Die griffigen Titel swingen, grooven, haben sogar Ohrwurm- und Hit-Qualitäten ("Heavy Things"), sind dabei aber total relaxt und unverkrampft. Unüberhörbar sind Country-Feeling und Westcoast-Flair, die die frühen Jazz- und Art-Rock-Elemente ersetzt haben. Die Großmeister der Live-Interpretation mit unverhofften Songwriter-Qualitäten.

Detlef Kinsler - HIFI Test (05/00)
© HIFI-Test



Break out the veggie burritos. Crack open the patchouli. Phish has a new studio album. Oh wait, does anyone really care about the group's studio albums? In the hierarchy of all things Phish, studio albums have to be near the bottom (perhaps alongside deodorant for the band's throngs of grungy phollowers). Seeing the band live is seeing it in its element, where a four-minute song can turn into a zany, improvisational opus, and where tens of thousands of people noodle their way into psychedelic bliss. With bootlegging encouraged (and Napster becoming an everyday household appliance), what purpose do these studio records serve?

Like the seven albums that preceded it, Farmhouse (shouldn't it have been called Pharmhouse?) lays down the bare bones of songs that turn into completely different entities on stage. Perhaps the pleasure in listening to Farmhouse comes from trying to decipher how the band would enhance the tracks in concert. A track such as "Twist Around," for example, contains one central, rolling riff that's ready to be built up into a full-on jam. "Bug" ranges from plaintive to powerful and "Gotta Jibboo" has the boogie factor built-in. What "jibboo" means only a true phan might understand. "Sand" also possesses the potential for live enjoyment with its funky Mike Gordon bass line and Jon Fishman's skippy drums.

Farmhouse also contains a handful of tracks that exist quite nicely outside the live context. Winsome and melodious, the title track features lead vocalist/guitarist Trey Anastasio blaring away with a pretty guitar solo and sweet vocals accompanied by the band's harmonies. "Dirt" is a sappy, but soothing ballad led by Page McConnell's rollicking piano licks and Anastasio's typically clear guitar, and is bound together with a lovely, harmonized refrain. The instrumental acoustic guitar of "The Inlaw Josie Wales" works well as a languid and soothing jam. Such tracks as these legitimize Phish's need to release studio albums, showing the band's rather fine ability in non-improvisational songcraft.

On "Piper" and the album's closer, "First Tube," riffs build upon riffs, providing a taste of Phish as most people know the group best: getting busy off the cuff. Farmhouse doesn't show that vibe in full effect, but it instead allows a much broader look into one of rock's most enduring and eclectic groups.

Peter Gaston - June 19, 2000
CDNOW Editorial Assistant
Copyright © 1994-2001 CDnow Online, Inc. All rights reserved.



On Farmhouse, Phish reaches beyond its core fans that love the band for its endless jamming and places greater emphasis on quality, traditional songwriting. On its nine previous studio albums, Phish often effortlessly cross-pollinated styles such as rock, jazz, Latin, prog-rock, psychedelia, folk, country and blues. On Farmhouse, however, songs such as "Heavy Things" and the title track are fully developed in a style reminiscent of Little Feat and the Grateful Dead. Savory roots-rock arrangements prevail throughout the album, and Phish nicely capture a down-home feel on "The Inlaw Jose Wales" with the help of banjo player Bela Fleck and dobroist Jerry Douglas.

D.M. Avery: CMJ New Music Report Issue: 669 - Jun 05, 2000
© 1978-1999 College Media Inc. All rights reserved.



With their eighth studio release, Phish finally give their notoriously hippied-out fans something to be stoned about. Closest to 1996's Billy Breathes in its simple and reflective tenor, Farmhouse requires frequent mental lapses to be tolerated in its entirety. And though its tracks ostensibly run the gamut from Phish's poppiest to most eclectic generic driftings, overproduction is the closest thing to an organizing principle on the album.

Farmhouse's best song, also the title and opening track, immediately conjures their song "Free" in the melodic interplay between vocals and instrumentation, even while predictably playing on the band's weed reputation with the double-entendre lyric "I never saw the northern lights." And while we may forgive this obvious thematic shallowness in the face of gorgeous musical subtext - Phish is a jam band, after all - by the third track, "Bug," the simplicity of prominently featured lines like "It doesn't really matter" becomes overbearing.

Although Phish has generally been able to hide behind instrumental virtuosity and free-form experimentation, Farmhouse's overproduction - interestingly guitarist Trey Anastasio's first production credit - makes the band's shortcomings painfully obvious. If the album's radio-friendly texture wasn't enough to bring their lyrics to the forefront, Phish's more "philosophical" posturing does the job. Let's just leave the "maturing gracefully" thing to Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, guys.

But it's the trajectory of Phish's studio album quality that truly makes Farmhouse disappointing. Compared to top 40 tripe, or, worse, Carlos Santana's collaborations with R&B performers, the album is certainly tolerable enough. But in light of 1998's equally underwhelming The Story of the Ghost, one might discern the evolution of a pattern. Unless Phish releases something on the order of Lawnboy soon, their live reputation will become their sole musical asset.

© 1999 VH1 Online - Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved.



There's a thin line between mellow and torpid, and Phish repose on that line all too calmly on Farmhouse, their eleventh album. It's an album dominated by songs from Phish's guitarist and main singer, Trey Anastasio; it was even recorded in his Vermont barn. He's leading Phish's latest attempt to come up with radio-length tracks that might spread their renown beyond the jam-band faithful. To hear why those fans fill arenas, try "First Tube" or the quickly accelerating "Piper," two glimpses of Phish jams in motion that turn vamps into breezy journeys. But songs have always been the least of Phish's assets; they're just raw material for those jams.

Most of the songs on Farmhouse are going to need a lot of live resuscitation. Leaving behind the shape-shifting cleverness of older Phish fare like "It's Ice," they're straightforward countryish rock that sets out to be genial but, with Anastasio's nonchalant singing, comes off slightly smug. If Farmhouse is Anastasio calling the shots, maybe he's not the group's resident genius after all. Tom Marshall's lyrics are about mild bummers or existential musings: rapacious girlfriends in the Allmans-style "Heavy Things," complete withdrawal in the sluggish, wanna-be-R.E.M. dirge "Dirt," dream-catching in the acoustic "Sleep."

One of Phish's problems is that their members are such music fans that they can't help re-creating their idols; the minor-key groove of "Twist," one of the album's better songs, leads Anastasio to a Santana guitar simulation. Then again, most music fans wouldn't be shameless enough to imitate the "Everything's gonna be all right" phrase from Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry," as Phish do in "Farmhouse." Another problem is that Phish just ain't that funky; "Sand" would like to be as cool as War's "Cisco Kid" but comes off more like Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle." These songs are bound to improve in concert; bring a tape recorder.

JON PARELES - RS 841
© Copyright 2001 RollingStone.com

 

 L y r i c s


Farmhouse

Welcome this is a Farmhouse
we have cluster flies alas
And this time of year is bad
We are so very sorry,
There is little we can do
But swat them

She didn't beg oh, not enough
She didn't stay when things got tough
I told a lie and she got mad
She wasn't there when things got bad

I never ever saw the northern lights
I never really heard of cluster flies
Never ever saw the stars so bright
In the farmhouse things will be alright

Woke this morning to the stinging lash
Every man rise from the ash
Each betrayal begins with trust
Every man returns to dust


Twist

I spoke your name for many days
Pronouncing it in several ways
And moving letters all around
And substituting every sound

And when you heard the end result,
I told you it was not my fault,
If you were here more of the day,
It wouldn't twist around that way

Wouldn't twist around (wouldn't twist around) that way Whoo!


Bug

There've been times when I wander
And times when I don't
Concepts I'll ponder
And concepts I won't ever see
God isn't one of these
Former or latter
Which did you think I meant?
It doesn't matter to me

CHORUS:
Bug, it doesn't matter
(Don't need it)
Bug, it doesn't matter
(Don't feed it)
Bug, it doesn't matter
(Thoughts faded)
It doesn't matter
(Overrated)

Gold in my hand
In a country pool
Standing and waving
The rain, wind on the runway
Spending or saving
Credit or debt
Which did you think I meant?
Nothing I see can be taken from me

CHORUS

It doesn't matter (x11)


Back on the Train

When I jumped off, I had a bucket full of thoughts
When I first jumped off, I held that bucket in my hand
Ideas that would take me all around the world
I stood and watched the smoke behind the mountain curl
It took me a long time to get back on the train

Now I'm gone and I'll never look back again
I'm gone and I'll never look back at all
You know I'll never look back again
I turn my face into the howlin' wind
It took me a long time to get back on the train

See my face in the town that's flashing by
See me standing at the station in the rain
See me running there beside the car
I left it all behind, again I'll travel far
It took me a long time to get back on the train


When I jumped off, I had a bucket full of thoughts
When I first jumped off, I held that bucket in my hand
Ideas that would take me all around the world
I stood and watched the smoke behind the mountains curl
It took me a long time to get back on the train
It took me a long time to get back on the train
It took me a long time to get back on the train


Heavy Things

Things are falling down on me
Heavy things I could not see
When I finally came around
Something small would pin me down
When I try to step aside
I move to where they'd hoped I'd be

Vanessa calls me on the phone
Reminding me I'm not alone
I fuss and quake and cavitate
I try to speak and turn to stone

Tilly reaches through my vest
to do the thing that she does best
she probes and tears my ventricles
steals my one remaining breath

Stumbling as I fall from Grace
she needs my vision to replace
her ailing sight throughout the night
leaving two holes in my face

Mary was a friend I'd say
'til one summer day
she borrowed everything I owned
and then simply ran away


Gotta Jibboo

Momma sing sing thatcha gotta jibboo.
Papa sing gotta jibboo

Momma sing sing thatcha gotta jibboo.
Gotta jibboo and keep on drinking, too

Gotta Jibboo
   

Dirt

Washed up on shore...
washed up on shore...

I'd like to live beneath the dirt
A tiny space to move and breathe is all that I would ever need
I want to live beneath the dirt
where I'd be free from push and shove like all those swarming up above
beneath their heels I'll spend my time

shout your name into the wind
I'll wiggle in the earth and dew
shout your name into the wind
and somtimes I will think of you
shout your name into the wind
And if you ever think of me
Kneel down and kiss the earth
and show me what this thought is worth
i'll never hear your voice again

shout your name into the wind...
shout your name into the wind...
shout your name into the wind...
shout your name into the wind...

shout your name into the wind...
shout yout name into the wind...
shout your name into the wind...
shout your name into the wind...


Piper

Piper, piper the red, red worm,
Awoke last night to the sound of the storm,
The words are the words I sailed upon.


Sleep

I can't describe the feeling when

I'm in my bed asleep and then
I wake up with a vision blurred
And all my efforts are detered
To reconstruct this image lost

There're certain things my mind must do
and even though they're very few
The image glistens like a gem

Repairing is not one of them
So I'm awake though in my mind
The image thats so unrefined
is calling to me from the deep
and tempting me to fall asleep


The Inlaw Josey Wales

Instrumental


Sand

If you can heal the symptoms
but not affect the cause
it's quite a bit like trying to heal
the gunshot wound with gauze
if you instead attempt to rest
the pistol from the hand
then I would not be able to
equate my life with sand

Flowing through the hourglass
pushing through the funnel
turn once more and racing
all your siblings for the tunnel
slide and let the silicone
embrace you as you fall
then bounce around
and let your brothers
crush you to the wall

I would choose my own religion
worship my own spirit
but if he ever preached to me
I wouldn't want to hear it
I'd drop him a forgotten god
languishing in shame
and then if I hit stormy seas
I'd have myself to blame

If you can heal the symptoms,
but not affect the cause
you can't heal the symptoms


First Tube

Instrumental
 

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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